How One Software Vendor Implemented a Digital Wellness Center in Two Weeks
The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unexpected challenge for companies of all shapes and sizes, and many have been forced to respond to the crisis by implementing new protocols or closing offices to ensure the safety of employees. California’s East Bay based employer, a leading provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources departments, was one of those organizations.
The Challenge
In response to the pandemic, this employer shifted its 6,000 employees to a remote work environment while developing a strategy for the future. Early in 2019, the employer had considered investing in a direct healthcare solution and building an onsite health center, but ultimately decided against it. Once the pandemic hit the United States, the employer quickly realized it was time to revisit those partner conversations and provide a healthcare solution for employees and dependents as quickly as possible.
Once the employer realized the impact COVID-19 was having across the country, they re-initiated conversations with one of its front-runner partner choices, Premise Health, and expressed a desire for an onsite health center and a focused COVID-19 solution. However, it was challenged by the uncertainty of when its teams would be back on campus, making it difficult to justify the cost of building an onsite center if there weren’t going to be any employees present to utilize its services.
The employer wanted to provide a healthcare solution for
all 23,000 national employees and dependents,
not just the 6,000 located in Pleasanton, California. After hearing all of the must-haves and concerns, Premise got to work creating the best solution tailored specifically for this client’s population.
The Solution
To address client concern of investing in an onsite center when no employees were physically on campus, Premise proposed a phased approach – starting with our Digital Wellness Center solution to provide immediate access to care.
The Digital Wellness Center delivers a powerful combination of virtual primary care, behavioral health, occupational health, pharmacy, and Connected Care+ products, facilitated by a centralized care team. This solution offers high-quality care to members in all 50 states through a single, cloud-based portal. It also includes access to our COVID-19 management product, pandemic readiness, which offers screening and testing to provide continued operations and care support for members out of work due to COVID-19 illness or exposure. After signing the contract, our teams went to work and were able to quickly stand up the virtual solution for our client just one month later.
By quickly offering 24/7 digital access for all 23,000 employees and their dependents, our partnership made an immediate impact and provided a convenient option for both local and nationwide employees to get the care they needed, when and where they needed it.
Phase two of the approach involved standing up a small, temporary onsite center using an existing location at the client’s headquarters by February 1, 2021. Premise immediately sent operational leaders to the employer’s campus in California to walk the grounds and identify a space where a physician and medical assistant could provide urgent and acute primary care services to the limited number of employees working on site. Not only will the physician provide high-quality care, but they will also double as a clinical consultant for the client, supporting and guiding the company’s global initiatives as the pandemic continues to evolve.
Phase three of the client’s plan will be putting together all of the pieces to create a comprehensive onsite wellness center. Premise implementation teams have already started construction on the permanent location, which should be complete in fall of 2021. The center will offer primary care, labs, immunizations, behavioral health, physical therapy, chronic condition management, Connected Care+, and pre-packaged provider dispensed medications. Once complete, the go-live will have spanned a course of 18 months based on the employer’s needs throughout the process.
The Results
By standing up a Digital Wellness Center solution in a tight time frame, the client’s employees are able to conveniently receive the care they need, when and where they need it. Employees are more likely to seek acute and primary care services at places that are more convenient and closer to home in a remote work environment. And since the employer hasn’t determined when it will safely bring back its teams, its Digital Wellness Center is extremely valuable, allowing members to access the same network of doctors using the same technology.
Once the local onsite wellness center opens its doors in 2021, the client’s members will already be familiar with their providers and how to use the My Premise Health portal, leading to a more engaged and trusting population.
By offering a direct healthcare solution in partnership with Premise Health, this client will see dramatic healthcare savings through a reduction in hospital admissions, better referrals to high-value providers and facilities, and proactive monitoring of chronic conditions. Overall, through its work with Premise, our client has been able to provide the support and care its employees needed during a challenging and uncertain time.
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